Dishful Thinking

Let’s dish about dishes. Tableware aside, a dish is a handy thing for so much more than food. Depending on its size and edges, its surface area and finish, it can be purely decorative or supremely functional. My works tend toward a mix of the two: use it if you want, enjoy its looks for sure. For the purposes of this Portfolio, I have gathered my dishes into somewhat arbitrary piles of Little Ones, Whatnots, and Bowls & Oddments. Some have mixed media additions and/or decals for even more enjoyment.

These galleries feature works that have sold over the years. For the latest available, please check out my SHOP.

Little Ones

The small dish has tuckability and charm. It spends its time modestly blushing and receiving precious things for safekeeping. Well OK, that’s only part of the fantasy, but there’s no denying the usefulness of something pleasing to look at – even remark on – which also, like a lovely caregiver, can help you out. These Little Ones hold fondness for me in not only the joy of making them, but also in seeing where they lead in this humble realm of the material world. They range from single to double slab construction, from textures – even holes – to color blends, from utterly simple to encrusted Baroque-ness. All in around 3 inches across or less.

Whatnots

It’s great that the Dishful Thinking category is wide open to interpretation, “dish” being a somewhat generic word for all manner of shallow, mostly flattish-bottomed vessels. Sometimes pieces land in it because they don’t work anywhere else, and this is so true for the Whatnots. Wide and relatively short, they play with definitions, mostly by what they are not: not bowls, not cans, not cups, and, heavens, not sculpture! So, Whatnot Dish it is. That takes care of Form, but what about Function? They are wide-open (pun alert!) for interpretive uses, and it is fun to add a ceramic tag with a possible purpose, whether real or ironic. Sometimes they come in pairs. Sometimes they get a random charm instead of a tag. That small chain attachment can lead anywhere and all the unassorted minutiae of our lives can jump in.

Bowls & Oddments

As noted above, Dishware free-ranges from platter-like to bowl-like, from strictly functional to not-so. This Bowls & Oddments section is the dishrack, where they all go to hang out before being put away. Included here are not only bowls, but one-offs, prototypes, and, ahem, “interpretations,” most of which have sold or been gently forsaken for other projects. There’s only so much time, folks. Let’s take a look at the most interesting ones which I’m preserving here for posterity.